Almost Roses
by A Hopeless Romantic
Summary: While clearing out some things from storage, Gray comes across a nostalgic item. When he shows it to Erza, it leads to a series of events that cause him to correct a grave error; Erza has never gotten roses!


I'm turning into a huge Gray fan now. I imagine all my FT fics will probably star him. This fic is to thank all the reviewers of my first FT fic, especially Kaoden, yuuko-san, Heavens Wrath 15, and Goth-Punk88, who all asked me to write more GrayxErza stories. Thanks guys.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any of its characters.

…

Gray did not particularly like cleaning out the attic. It was always hot, damp and had a perpetual musty smell. There were however, moments where he would find some sort of item that had an important memory attached to it. For instance, there was a leather belt that could only fit a ten year old that was packed away near the window. That was a birthday gift from Ur, back when he was still in training. By the broken lamp sat a wooden shield that was slowly rotting. He won that from the bandit leader he defeated on his very first Fairy Tail mission. So while he did not particularly like cleaning up in his attic, he was willing to tolerate it I order to find some sort of treasure.

Heaving a dusty suitcase up, Gray pulled himself and the wheeled contraption to a more open area. "Now what the hell is in this thing?" he wondered. The suitcase was dusty, but the hinges still shone and the handle looked new. "Must be a recent addition that just got covered in dust."

He blew across, sending dust particles flying away from him. Reaching for the lock, he froze the device and broke it off. 'I really should stop losing my keys.' he thought. Gray opened up the case to merely find clothes. They were neatly folded and pressed and seemed to be somewhat fancy. Rummaging around he found a pamphlet that was torn. He unfolded part of it and read, "Selazade Theatre proudly presents: Frederick and Yanderica!" A grin appeared on his face as he remembered the days spent acting and presenting that silly play. The grin grew larger as he pulled out some of the clothes and tried them on.

…

Erza was walking back from the guild after enjoying a day off drinking and chatting with Mirajane and Master Makarov. Fried had treated her to a drink and Lucy had been telling her a cute story about Happy when Natsu dragged the Stellar Spirit mage off to god knows where. She had no other plans now, besides going home to Fairy Hills and having a long bubble bath.

Midway between the guild and her home, Erza heard someone calling her name. Turning around she saw tall, handsome man dressed in regal wear and a cape approach her. Atop his head was some sort of silver crown that was glinting in the sunlight. As he got closer she realized that she knew the man. "G…Gray?" she asked astounded, 'This is the first time I've seen him wearing so many clothes.'

While she contemplated the reasons for Gray's dress code, Gray had made his way to Erza and smiled one of his dashing 'Loke-esque' smiles that made all women go weak in the knees. The fluttering cape and shining crown only added to the effect. Erza felt a little warm and light-headed. She shook her head and frowned at the ice mage. "What foolishness is causing you to impersonate royalty?" she scolded.

Gray laughed at the question and tried to explain. "No, the costume is from when we had that job to perform as actors. I still kept some of our costumes from then." he said sheepishly.

Erza stared at him and suspiciously asked "You kept OUR costumes?"

Gray blushed and stammered through an explanation. "Yeah…well, Natsu burnt his costume and most of the other spares. And I think Lucy secretly likes all those princess dresses, so she must have kept hers." He gestured to his wardrobe, "This is actually a mixture of my villain costume and your prince costume. The pants are mine, the shirt and cufflinks are your costume and the shoes are the only pair that weren't spoilt by Natsu." He pulled a sharp white object out and showed it to her." This is one of the teeth from Natsu's dragon costume." Erza stared at it and laughed as she remembered some of the crazy thing they had all done during that week.

Watching Erza laugh brought a smile to Gray's lips. She never had many occasions to laugh, and being out on missions and in life and death situation tended to cause more frowns then laughs. 'It's quite a lovely sound.' He thought to himself. He scratched the back of his head and asked, "So where are you going?"

Erza stopped giggling and smiled at him. "I was just heading home for the day." She pointed off in the direction of Fairy Hills. The dormitory could be seen from their vantage point. Fairy Hills was the dorm where most of the female mages lived. Given all the quirks and odd personalities of its inhabitants, it was not uncommon to hear odd noises or see strange flashes of lights within the building. Fortunately for the townsfolk of Magnolia, the dorm was a ways from the center of town.

"I'm heading in that direction. Let me walk with you." Gray subtly asked Erza's permission. He really didn't need to go anywhere, but he was willing to say that in order to stay in Erza's company for a while longer.

Erza grinned and winked at him, causing a slight blush to form on his cheeks. "I would be most grateful, your highness." As they started walking, she looked over at her companion, and noticed something different. She questioned him, "What happened to your cape?"

Gray gave himself a once over and realized that he had unconsciously removed his cape and now lost it. 'Blast, when the hell did that happen' he grimaced. 'I swear I lose more clothes then anybody in Magnolia.' Gray frowned at the idea while Erza giggled at him. "It's not funny," he pouted. "I was going for 'the prince' look."

Laughing a little louder, Erza replied "Not exactly a prince." Gray continued to pout, now sticking out his bottom lip. 'Adorable' Erza thought looking over at him. She was quite comfortable thinking of him that way. She decided to humor him. "Well, maybe you can be an 'almost-prince'!" Gray smiled once more.

As they were chatting, a young man walked up to them. He wore cloth pants and a light, woolen shirt. 'Must be a local from town.' Erza figured. The young man hesitantly made his way to Erza and blushed. In his hands was a bright blue cloth scabbard that was empty. 'It's a lovely scabbard,' she thought 'I think I have one just like that.'

"M...Miss Erza," he mumbled "I, I wanted to… to, um… to thank you for protecting Magnolia town. That is... I ah, I appreciate all that you have done and I wanted, I mean, would like to give you this as a sign of thanks." He turned bright red and presented the scabbard to her.

Erza smiled gently at the younger person and, not wanting to be rude replied, "Ah, thank you. This is a beautiful scabbard. It will go well with my Sky Master armor." She accepted the scabbard and placed it by her waist. The young man, happy his gift was approved of, grinned at her. "Ah it's no problem. I'm sorry I interrupted you and…" he turned to gray and the grin dropped from his face. Behind Erza stood an intimidating Gray, who was glaring right at the lad. Wisps of cold air swirled round him and his eyes seemed to shine with magic. Erza, who was still adjusting the scabbard, had not noticed anything. "Eeep!" the young man gasped and turn tail to run.

Gray frowned at the disappearing figure. "It seems your fan base is expanding." he noted. He turned to Erza and saw her smiling sadly at the scabbard. "Hey, what's wrong?" he asked backing away. A sad Erza could easily turn into an angry Erza.

"It's nothing, just something silly." She replied.

Gray pressed on. "You can tell me, Erza." Erza smiled sweetly at him. He was still one of her best friends after all.

"It's just, I always get armors and weapons and trophies as gifts. I have never been given roses by anyone." The sad smile continued to stay on her face.

"That's not true." Her companion argued back, "You have been given lots of flowers whenever you win contest. Like when you won the Miss Fairy Tail contest."

"Yes, I've been given flowers; but never roses."

Gray was stunned speechless. How was it that Erza, one of the most beautiful and graceful women he had ever met, had never been given roses? 'She is the personification of grace and beauty.' he thought. He thought for a moment knowing that something should be done to fix this grave error. 'Erza should have roses every day. She should be able to wake up and see them first thing in the morning. She should have a garden full of them.' Gray stopped at that as an idea began to form in his head. 'Yes, a rose garden.' He looked towards Fairy Hills and realized that they were close by.

Erza was a little surprised when Gray grabbed her hand and started pulling her. "Hey, what are you doing?" she asked as he picked up speed. "Where are you taking me?"

Gray smirked at her, still running toward the dorm. "You'll see."

…

The two wizards arrived at Fairy Hills a few minutes later. During the run back, Gray had somehow lost his shirt and under vest. He was now clothed in only a pair of pants and a silver crown. Erza still wasn't certain why he had dragged her here or why they ran when this was her destination all along. She did, however know that for some reason Gray was still holding her hand, and she was alright with it. Her cheeks colored as implications of what it could mean ran through her mind.

Gray turned to her and asked, "Which one is your room?"

Erza's blush deepened. 'Why is he asking about my room?' she panicked. 'Does he want to see it? Does he want to come in? Will this turn out like that sexy, romantic book I borrowed from Levi?' As thoughts began to race through her mind she realized that Gray was pointing to the windows.

"Come on Erza, Which window is yours?" he asked exasperated. Erza slowly pointed to a window on the right. "That one…" she said. Her arm the shifted slightly to the right as she pointed at another window. "and that one," She pointed at three more rooms and told him, "and that one and that one and that one there."

Gray's eyes widened as he took in the size of Erza's 'room'. "Whoa, that's a lot of space." After a moment of gawking he turned back to her and said, "Well, at least you will be able to see it from up there."

Erza looked at him confused, "See what from up there?"

Gray grinned his patented his roguish, ice mage grin and asked her a question. "Do you know what the first spell I learned was?"

Taking a moment to think, Erza came up with the most logical answer. "Well I suppose it would be Ice Make: Lance. It is your simplest and most used spell."

Chuckling a bit Gray corrected her. "Actually, I only learned attack spells later, once I had a grip on the Ice Make magic. My teacher, Ur, first thought Lyon and me defensive and decorative spells. And of all of those spells, the first one I mastered was a decorative spell that Ur was able to use defensively. She could alter it so it was able to bind an opponent. I can only use it for decorative purposes."

He turned away from her and faced the open lawn in front of Erza's room. He knelt down and placed his palms on the ground. Cold air started to swirl around him and magical power shimmered in his hands. Erza stood by silently watching as he concentrated. A second later he called out, "Ice Make: Rose Garden!"

Hundreds of ice fragments burst from the ground. The formed a large rectangle on the lawn, covering the area below Erza's five windows. Slowly, one by one, each fragment unfurled and formed a rose bud. Leaves of ice formed on each stalk and after all the fragments were complete, the rose buds simultaneously bloomed.

Erza stared in awe, taking in the sight. "Beautiful." She exclaimed. The sunlight glinted off of the rose petals and made each one shine. She shifted on her legs and realized that changing her vantage point allowed the light to refract inside the crystal roses and make it seem like they were made from a rainbow of colors. "It's so beautiful Gray."

Gray smiled gently at the woman who had come to mean so much to him. "You deserve roses Erza. And now, when you wake up in the morning, you can look out the window and see this garden that was made for you. The magic will last for a long while, so the roses will always stay bloomed for you, even in the summer." He rubbed his head sheepishly. "Well, there not real roses. More like 'almost-roses'. I hope you like them."

Erza was rendered speechless. In front of her stood a boy, (no, not boy… a man) a man who had known her for more the eight years. Someone who had stood with her during her hardest and most difficult moments; who had defended her to others; who stood up to her and challenged her when she crossed the line. Here was someone who had progressed from being a fellow guild member to friend to teammate and to partner when they battled. And now he was the sweetest person she had ever met. All these thoughts buzzed round her head and all the emotions were bursting out of her heart.

Overwhelmed, her body moved by itself as she stepped towards Gray. She smiled tearfully, besieged by happiness and joy and reached forward to kiss his cheek. Inches from her goal, Erza's foot slipped on some of the ice from the rose garden and she fell short of her target. Instead of kissing Gray's cheek, her lips ended up on the corner of his mouth. Caught up in shock and something else, the two mages stood still for a moment before quickly pulling away. Erza blushed bright red and stared at the ground while Gray's eyes were wide and his mouth was slightly open. After a minute of confusion, unsure feelings, internal debate and silence; both of them regained their voices.

"What was that for?" Gray asked softly. His own blush was still going strong. Erza turned to him and gathered up the courage to speak.

"You were just, being the cutest, most caring person I knew. And so I just decided to act on that." She giggled a bit. "It's funny isn't it?"

Gray tilted his head slightly and asked, "What is?" A smile was making its way onto his lips.

Erza reached her arm forward and pulled off the crown that was still on his head. She tossed it into his arms. "An 'almost-kiss' to an 'almost-prince' for giving me 'almost-roses'" and with that she walked to the front door of Fairy Hills. Before entering she turned back to him and smiled shyly. She gave him a wave, blushed and entered.

Gray's smile had morphed to a full on grin. As he turned to walk away he said to himself, "I wonder what she would have done for real roses?"

…

That's it. Hope you enjoyed it and I hope you review. On a side note if someone would like to beta some of my future FT fics, please let me know.


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